With the advent of laptop computer technology, network configuration and connectivity problems have increased. A problem encountered by laptop users that are active on a plurality of networks, at various points in time, relates to there being substantially no way for laptops to automatically determine which of several networks have been attached to in the past and which network configuration should be appropriately applied. Thus, when connecting to different networks, it is essential to apply a correct network configuration in order for laptops to become network operational. Unfortunately, as laptop users move between different networks, previous configurations may be overwritten, thus requiring substantial manual reconfiguration.
As an example to illustrate the above problems, consider a user who requires network connectivity at both home and work. At home, the user may have statically configured the laptop for a network connection to a cable modem provider, for example. At work, the laptop may get network configurations from a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server. However, previous home static configurations are likely be lost because when the laptop is on the corporate server, the user will likely configure their network adapter to boot from the DHCP server. The static configuration entered previously is thus overwritten. When the user transports the laptop home again, static configurations for the home network must be manually reentered. This problem becomes more acute if an increasing number of networks attached to by users require static configurations.
Another problem associated with static configurations is related to human error. For each site a laptop user visits, the user must remember correct static configurations of each network and “plumb” configurations manually. This clearly can lead to mistakes because of manual processes involved. It is noted that these problems may exist when one or more static configurations are involved. DHCP configurations may be obtained from a DHCP server and thus do not require user input.
Although users may save static configuration settings for each network and subsequently apply them manually, as noted above, manual processes are both error prone and time consuming. Currently, there is no automatic way of applying static configurations to various networks. Consequently, there is a strong need in the art for enhancing laptop network connectivity by mitigating static configuration requirements.